


The Day Bucky Fell

by betheflame



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Environment, M/M, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Sam Wilson Is a Good Bro, Steve Rogers Is a Good Bro, YouTube, YouTuber Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:00:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29066208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betheflame/pseuds/betheflame
Summary: Bucky Barnes has one truly favorite way to unwind - Tony Stark's Mr. Roboto YouTube channel. When the channel runs a contest to meet the man himself, Bucky's friends decide he has to win.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Comments: 14
Kudos: 134
Collections: Winteriron Winter Stockings 2020





	The Day Bucky Fell

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Corsets_and_Cardigans](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corsets_and_Cardigans/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [Corsets_and_Cardigans](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corsets_and_Cardigans/pseuds/Corsets_and_Cardigans) in the [winteriron_winter_stockings_2020](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/winteriron_winter_stockings_2020) collection. 



> **Prompt:**  
>  1) Bucky is a huge fan (and has a huge crush on) Youtuber Tony. Steve, Nat and Sam hatch a plan for him to win a contest to fly out to meet Tony and star in a video.  
> 

“He can’t know.”

Nat nodded. Steve’s condition was valid - if Bucky had any idea the three of them were hatching this plan, he would kill them.

“He won’t,” Sam stated. “He never checks that email - I asked last night - and he’s so stressed over the MacLean project that he’s barely even on YouTube. The last three of Tony’s videos are unwatched.”

“Yikes,” Nat said, and the boys nodded. If Bucky was so stressed that his main stress relief was going untapped…

“Okay, so I’m going to hit record, and we’re going to explain to this guy why Bucky needs to win this contest. You ready?”

Both Steve and Sam said yes. Once she got the camera rolling, and settled herself back between them on the couch, she spoke.

“Hi, Tony and Pepper, we’re Nat, Sam, and Steve, and we’re submitting a video on behalf of our friends James Barnes,” Nat started.

“He’s just the best guy,” Steve continued, “but that’s not why he should win the chance to be on the show. He should win it because he’s watched every video six times -”

“At least,” Sam interrupted.

“And he has re-created nearly every single one of the robots himself,” Steve said. “He’s an environmental scientist by training, but has gotten into robotics as a hobby really hard, and right now he’s trying to build an underwater vacuum thing for this one lake in upstate New York that has a problem with silt.”

“We haven’t heard about anything else for months.” Nat picked the narrative back up. “But he’s at an impasse, and it’s really stressing him out. He’s convinced you could help him find the right thing he’s missing, but he won’t message you because he thinks you’d be bored with it all.”

“We have a feeling you’d find it - and him - not boring at all,” Sam spoke up. “When you announced the contest, we had nearly convinced him to apply, but then the vacuum project got stressful again and he hasn’t. But you two asked for people who have no formal training in the thing they’re trying to invent -”

“James knows a lot about algae,” Nat pipped in, “but truly nothing about wires.”

“- and whose idea could change the world for good, which we honestly have no idea if it can, but he is convinced it will,” Steve finished.

“He’s 32, and we’re all based in New York City, so you don’t need to worry about his transportation or anything. He’s honestly just your biggest fan, Tony,” Nat said, “and it would make his life for this to happen.”

“And not to get all womp womp about this,” Steve added, “but his life hasn’t been the easiest, and he’s just quietly kicked ass and taken names when he has every excuse not to. Just… please?”

“Like we said, he has no idea we’re doing this, so the contact details are all mine,” Nat said. “But if you choose him, we’ll make sure his schedule is clear, and all the other stipulations.”

“Thanks for considering,” Steve said as a sign off. They held for a moment so Nat could make a clean edit before they uploaded it to the cont

* * *

Tony hit ‘stop’ on the video and looked at Pepper. “I think we have our winner.”

“You said you wanted it to be a kid,” Pepper gently reminded him.

“But who else had their three best friends secretly advocate for them? No one,” Tony replied.

“Has nothing to do with the pictures they sent?” Pepper teased.

“I am sure I don’t know what you mean,” Tony sassed back.

“I’ll get in touch with the friends,” Pepper said with a laugh.

* * *

“Where the fuck are we going, and why the fuck do I have to be in this getup?” Bucky snarled to his best friends.

“We are going to lunch,” Nat said, “and you have to wear that because I said so.”

“That’s not an answer,” Bucky replied.

“Why do you want to make Nat mad?” Sam asked. “Does that ever go well for any of us?”

Bucky had to admit it didn’t. But this was his one day off, which he wasn’t even sure how he’d gotten in the first place, and he didn’t want to spend it wearing dress pants, a button-down shirt, and have to worry about having his hair styled well. He wanted to be horizontal on his sofa, in sweatpants and manbun. Preferably, there would be pizza and beer.

Instead, he was in an Uber, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, sandwiched between Sam, a normal sized adult, and Steve, a Dorito-shaped behemoth, with Nat in the front seat. They were all chattering away and Bucky was fighting the urge to scream. They would not tell him what was going on.

“Okay, we’re here,” Steve said a while later. They were in front of a non-descript apartment building in the West Village.

“Where the hell is here?” Bucky asked.

“You’ll see,” Nat said enigmatically. They led him into an elevator, where Nat punched in a code. The elevator rose smoothly, and the door opened into a wide open space.

A wide open space that looked really familiar.

Really, really, familiar.

So did the man approaching him.

“Hi, James? I’m Tony.”

Which is when Bucky promptly passed out.

* * *

“And that,” Steve said to the gathered crowd, “was the day we knew Bucky would never be single again.”

Bucky ducked his head against Tony’s shoulder, and felt his husband’s laughter.

Husband.

He ran his finger over his ring for the twelfth time since Tony had put it there a few hours ago. It was real.

Two years, seven months, and thirteen days after being shown into Tony’s penthouse, the vacuum they created together was used by fourteen governments world wide to clean man-made lakes without destroying the wildlife living there. Four days after that, Tony proposed, and six months after that, they’d said ‘I do’.

Bucky had become a staple on Tony’s channel - which expanded from being a show about a guy building robots from scrap to being two guys building anything from anything, all while flirting, and sniping at each other, and falling in love on camera.

“But in all truth, we just knew that working with Tony would make Bucky happy, and the three of us wanted nothing more than for Buck to be happy. We had no idea, of course, how happy Bucky would make Tony, but we’re more than thrilled to be here today. To Tony and Bucky!”

The crowd all raised their glasses and toasted the pair, and the life they were building together.


End file.
